CREATe at the University of Glasgow offers unique, world-class opportunities for doctoral research. We supervise PhD students working across a range of disciplines including cultural economics, empirical legal studies, intellectual property law, policy studies and studies of management of the creative industries. Our ethos for PhD training involves fostering an active cohort of researchers and including students in scholarly activities of the Centre, including conferences, impact activity and digital resource curation. For an idea of topics of interest, please see the fields outlined in our research programme . CREATe also regularly hosts visiting PhD students for periods ranging from several weeks to one year. Proposals for bold, interdisciplinary work are welcome.
Information for Prospective PhD Students
There are a number of ways to pursue PhD studies with CREATe. When available, we will advertise funded PhD studentships associated with specific grants. You may browse these upcoming and previous CREATe funded PhD research opportunities on our opportunities page here .
Alternatively, prospective students may contact us with a proposal for self-funded or externally funded doctoral research. If you have a research proposal prepared and have identified potential supervisor(s) , please get in touch with us using our contact information or email a member of faculty directly to discuss your interests. We encourage prospective PhD students to seek external funding as part of the application process.
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Writing a research proposal.
Preparing your research proposal is the important first step to becoming a postgraduate research student at the School of Law.
The focus of your proposal will be slightly different depending on whether you wish to do a PhD or an LLM by research, but the principles of what to include and who to contact for advice are the same.
Before you write your detailed research proposal, you may wish to contact a member of our research staff with knowledge of the subject area. They who should be able to advise you whether or not your proposed topic is feasible.
This can be done prior to a formal application.
If you are not sure who is the best person to contact, an initial enquiry can be made to our Postgraduate Administrator, Susan Holmes .
A proposal for an LLM by research or a PhD should not exceed 15 pages in length and is unlikely to be less than 8 pages in length.
Check the limit specified by the funding body to which you are applying.
It should include the following:
The research context.
This is the background against which your research will be carried out.
It should be a brief introduction outlining the general area of study and identifying the subject area within which your study falls. You should also refer to the current state of knowledge (i.e. what research has been done to date) and any recent debates on the subject.
You need to reference this in the same way as you would do if you were writing an essay e.g. any articles or books you refer to should have a footnote with the full details of author, title, publication date, etc.
Outline the contribution that your research will make. It is normally best to do this in the form of specific aims or research questions or issues.
Demonstrate how your research fills a gap in existing research, by showing that it hasn’t been done before.
Explain why your research is important. It is not enough to say that this has not been studied previously, you need to explain why it is important or interesting enough to be studied.
Here you need to explain how you will obtain the information necessary to write your thesis.
For most law students, you will probably rely on documentary sources – information that already exists in some form e.g. journal articles, case reports, legislation, treaties, historical records.
In this case you need to say a little about how you will access these (bearing in mind that as a student of the University you will be provided with access to legal databases including Westlaw and LexisLibrary).
If yours is a comparative or international study, you will need to explain how you will obtain the relevant international materials and whether or not this will involve travel.
Some studies, however, might involve empirical research – information that is gathered through direct interaction with people and processes such as interviews, questionnaires, court observation or analysis of private records.
If you plan to undertake empirical research, you need to explain why this is an appropriate research method and give details of your planned methodology (e.g. who you hope to interview, how many interviews you will carry out).
In this section, you should also explain any special skills you have that will assist you in obtaining information, for example, if you plan to look at French law and you can read or speak French.
You should provide a very approximate timetable for the research.
For example, the timetable for a research LLM thesis comparing French law and Scots law might be:
When choosing a subject for your thesis, consider the requirements for a relevant degree and whether you can stick within the time and word limits. A PhD thesis must be from 70,000 to 100,000 words including footnotes.
Consider how your study will demonstrate originality. It is not enough simply to reproduce existing knowledge. There are many ways in which you can do this – it does not necessarily require you to study something that has never been studied before in any way, shape or form. For example, you could:
You also need to make sure your topic is not too broad. It is inappropriate to write a thesis that reads like a textbook. This is not sufficiently advanced work and your treatment will be too superficial. You need to choose something that will give you the scope both to describe and critically analyse the law. For example, a thesis on “the law relating to criminal defences inScotland” or “a review of EC law governing the enforcement of European law in national courts of member states” would be too broad. You would have to narrow down your topic to consideration of one particular aspect of the topic (e.g. one specific defence or one specific aspect of European law).
Recent and current PhD thesis topics have included:
For an LLM by research, your study should still be critical rather than simply describing the law in a particular area.
The field of study is likely to be significantly narrower than for a PhD, as it has a 30,000 word limit.
Recent and current LLM by research thesis topics have included:
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A good proposal should contain the following elements: Straightforward, descriptive, and informative title. Clear account of exactly what the question is that your research will address. Account of why this question is important and worth investigating. Assessment of how your own research will engage with recent study in the subject.
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Guide to writing a research proposal. A PhD is expected to make a significant and original contribution to knowledge. Therefore you need to explain how your research is likely to
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You are eligible to apply if your undergraduate degree is in a subject related to the academic field of your proposed doctoral research; Information and documents required for the University of Glasgow internal shortlisting process. PhD Project Title (maximum 20 words) . PhD Research Proposal Summary (maximum 500 words) Degree transcript
FindAPhD. Search Funded PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships in research proposal form at University of Glasgow.
Team: PhD researchers. Resources: PhD Activities and Resources. Study: PhD opportunities. CREATe at the University of Glasgow offers unique, world-class opportunities for doctoral research.
The field of study is likely to be significantly narrower than for a PhD, as it has a 30,000 word limit. Recent and current LLM by research thesis topics have included: Sustainable development and urban governance in planning law. Criminal liability for individuals who fail to prevent harm.